iPhone 6 Plus frozen on start screen

[Elrich]

My daughter's iPhone 6 plus became frozen on the start screen. I'm sure it's because her phone is too full of data (photos) and has almost no free space.

We've tried to "update" the phone from iTunes, but after 15 minutes it kicks you out and we've done that twice now. Apparently the only other option is to restore it to factory settings, which of course erases all the data, and she's totally opposed to that. Is there any other option?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

The iPhone being full could definitely cause that issue. Hard to tell without seeing the iPhone in person though.

-Which version of iOS on the iPhone now, and what version are you trying to update to?
-Does she have an Apple ID and have here data synced to iCloud? You can have her login to icloud.com to verify what is there.
-Where are her photos saved to?
-Is the iPhone seen by iTunes and/or Photos on the Mac, or is it connected to a PC?

There may not be any other option at this point, if the iPhone iOS is corrupted or cannot be recovered.

C

 

[Elrich]

Actually, we were able to take it to a licensed Apple repair place (no Apple Store in town) and they ran something on it that made it operational again. I'm not sure what they did differently from what I did at home -- for me, it just seemed to do nothing for 15 minutes and then time out, but he got a progress bar going on the phone's screen. It took about an hour, but he got it working again.

 

[Elrich]

Well, it happened again. This time I tried again to fix it myself, even though it just timed out when I tried that last time. This time I tried again to use "update" (rather than "restore") and something happened, but I misunderstood the warning that pops up. It says something like "if this phone cannot be updated, it will have to be restored to factory settings." I took that to mean that a message would pop up saying "this phone couldn't be updated", but it didn't do that, it just went ahead and restored it.

Now I have a very distraught daughter because all her data is gone (a lot of photos), and over the past couple weeks she had waved off my suggestions to back it up to my Mac. Apple's official line is that there's no way to recover that data, but seemingly dozens of software developers with web sites say that their software can recover at least some of it, if the phone hasn't been used much since the data was lost. Any truth to this? Or is it a waste of money to invest in any of these applications?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

I have heard that some of those recovery apps do work, to different degrees. I personally don't have any experience with them.

Was her iPhone signed in with an Apple ID/iCloud account? If so, there still could be some photos backed up there.

C

 

[Elrich]

I'm not sure. I'll have to ask her.

Any idea where I can get info about recovery apps? All I've been able to find is the sites of the various apps themselves.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Sorry, as I stated previously, I have no experience with any of them, and actually don't even know names to suggest.



C

 

[Elrich]

Right, well, I thought someone else might chime in? Although usually when I post on this board, you're the only one who responds!

 

[Cory Cooper]

I am sure others will add any info/experience if they have any.

C

 

[Sprocket]

I had a similar issue. All of the data on the phone was erased. But, Apple gives you 5GB of free storage on iCloud. As suggested, sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID and there is a good chance a lot of it will be there. If iCloud storage was turned off on the phone, there is nothing you can do, I'm afraid.

Bob

 

[Elrich]

I'm not sure if it was or not. I keep forgetting to check. I've made a note to myself.